Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-09-29
tttaDt ClLv L!..a
The Captured Flags and Pensions.
General George W. Morgan at
Cameron, Ohio.


Monroe county, on September 17th:
How clean, broad and patriotic the ad-
ministration Of President Cleveland has
been, when his order for the return of
the captured flags deposited in the War
Office, is ma lie the chief subject of com
plant against it.
The order was given, recoasilcred and
countermandej, and that is the b gin
ming and the en- ing of the whole affair.
Not one captured flag has been or will he
removed from the National Capitl and
all this smoke on the subject amounts to
nothing.
A nation is great famil;', in which
union and good will are vital clements;
as envy and discord are sources o; weak
ness and failure. We of the Moth can
afford to be just and generous. Tor alter
four years OF heroic battle, on either side,
the victory was ours.
During the war there was no malice
between the soldiers Of the opposing
rmies. The war over, certain northern
nd certain southern troops of their own
otion returned captured flags which
ad been calamity won, and us calamity
efended on well contested ti>lds; and
nose acts of generous chivalry were
allied with loud acclaim from ocean to
:ean, and from Canada 10 Mexico; and
le world belle yed that we were again
.1ited people, bound together by the
lnobling sentiment of patriotism.
Inspired by such feeling, brave and
leritorious soldier of two wars, who,
hen but boy, enlisted in the first
egiment of Pennsylvania volunteers in
our war with Mexico, and who for gal
lantry was promoted from the ranks to J..
lieutenancy in regular regiment, and
who is now Adjutant General of the
army of the United States, suggested to
the Secretary of War, and he to the
Chief Magistrate of the Republic, thatthe
captured flags deposited in the War Office
should be restored to those from whom
they had been gloriously won, and by
whom they had been gallantly defended.
The President did order those fla IS to be
but, on further consideration,
the order. The order
was generous and patriotic mistake;
mistake prompted by desire to prove to
The people Of the south that we are all
again; that we have but one
iag-the star spsngled banner or the
Union. But for all that, the order was
calculated to, and did wound the sus-
Of many Union soldiers. and
this constituted the mistake. Of all men,
soldiers are the most impulsive, but as a
rule they are the most generous of men;
and brave and generous men should not
allow party mot YES to smother the grand
and noble impulse of generosity. Let
the man who never committed mistake
step to the front! For he is the only
man who has right to cast stone at
Grover Cleveland. The man does not
live who never committed mistake.
And if the order was a mistake, SO have
been the assaults made against the Presi- :
dent.
In one OF the many histories of the
battle of Waterloo, a legend is told of
two aides de camp-the one of Napoleon,
the other of Wellington, who crossed :
each other paSh, each bearing an order
from his chief, on the execution of which
the fate of the attic might depend. The
Frenchmani bore down upon the Eng
who rode steadily on his course;
but as they nea1ed each other the Eng
lishman raised the stump of his sword
arm, which had been shot away in.a
former battle, and instead of striking his
disabled foe, the Frenchman Thought his
sword to salute and galloped on.
His doing SO vas mistake OF generosi-
ty. The Englishman should have been
made prisoner, and the failure to do so
might have lost the battle; but the
nobility Of the mistake has always re-
ceived more praise than censure.
The great Napoleon is credited with
saying: He is the best gyl, raj who
makes the fewest mistakes, and despite
all the grandeur of his character he was
not an exception to his own general
rule.
But let us look at home; and it is rin-
necessary to go farther back than the
great civil war; the grandest trial by
battle the world has ever seen; a war
which not only saved the Union, but
placed our country in the forefront of
nations.
When the national flag was fred upon
at Sumter, the seeding states were desti-
tute, or nearly 81, of military officers of
skill and experience, while the United
States had more than twelve hundred.
AS for fighting, the American volun-
teer north nd south, fights as bravely in
his first battle as in his last, as Shiloh
and Donnelson prove; but to make his
courage and intelligence thoroughly
effective, there must be organization,
discipline and drill and these requisites
the south did not possess, until mistake
of President Lincoln furnished the con-
federates with nearly two hundred Off
GERS Of skill and experience, whose res
ignations he accepted after Sumter had
been fred upon, and when it was known
they were about 10 take up arms against
the Union.
hold in my hand the official army
register published by order of the secre-
tary of War, in Sept 1851, which gives
the names and dates Of the designations
of southern officers, which were accepted
by Mr.. Lincoln after our flag had been
fired upon at Sumter. And in the list
we find the names Of Robert b. Lee,
Albert sidney johnson and Joseph u.
Johnson; the EQUALS Of Grant ahd Nc